Thomas Nelson Baker Sr.

Last updated

Reverend Dr. Thomas Nelson Baker, Sr. was a minister, author and philosopher. Born into slavery, Baker was the first African-American to receive a PhD in philosophy in the United States.

Biography

Baker was born in Eastville, Virginia, on August 11, 1860. His parents were Thomas Chadwick and Edith Nottingham Baker, who were slaves on Robert Nottingham's plantation in Northampton County, Virginia. [1]

His father became a Union soldier, and after the Civil War, Baker's mother taught him to read, which was a crime during slavery. [2]

My mother taught me my letters, although I well remember when she learned them herself. My first reading lesson was the second chapter of Matthew, the Bible being the only book we had. I never read a bad book in my life which is one of the blessings I got by being poor. I began to attend the common schools at eight and learned to love books passionately. I used to read through my recesses. Evenings I read the Bible to my parents and grandparents, while they listened with weeping eyes, thankful that I had the great blessing of being able to read. [2]

When he was 12, his father took him out of school, which left him with a burning desire to get an education. After nine years of a "bookless life," [2] he entered the Hampton Institute Normal School program, where he graduated as valedictorian.[ citation needed ]

To prepare for college, he enrolled at Mount Hermon Boys School in 1886, where he was one of only two black students. He was 25 when he started, and would serve as substitute principal in the summer months. [1] He graduated from Mount Hermon in June 1889. In 1890, he entered Boston University and graduated three years later as the valedictorian of his class. He then studied at Yale Divinity School, where he earned a degree, and was ordained as a minister at a Congregational Church on Dixwell Avenue in New Haven. He continued at Yale, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1903. [3] His dissertation topic: "The Ethical Significance of the Connection Between Mind and Body." [4]

He left New Haven for Pittsfield to become the minister at Second Congregational Church August 1, 1901, a position he held for 37 years. He succeeded the Rev. Dr. Samuel Harrison. [2]

Baker's ideas on race put him in the middle of the early 20th century debates between W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. The philosopher George Yancy has written numerous articles about Baker, explaining that he believed his work had been neglected. [4]

His wife Lizzie Baytop Baker, a leader among African American women in Western Massachusetts, [5] predeceased him. [6] Rev. Dr. Baker died at home from an accidental gas poisoning on February 22, 1941. [2] His son, Dr. T. Nelson Baker, Jr., was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio State in 1941. His first grandson, Dr. T. Nelson Baker, III, earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Cornell University in 1963. [7] Newman Taylor Baker, his second grandson, and Andrea Baker, [8] one of his great-grandchildren, are international musical artists.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Barnes (theologian)</span> American clergyman and abolitionist

Albert Barnes was an American theologian, clergyman, abolitionist, temperance advocate, and author. Barnes is best known for his extensive Bible commentary and notes on the Old and New Testaments, published in a total of 14 volumes in the 1830s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theodore Dwight Weld</span> American abolitionist

Theodore Dwight Weld was one of the architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years from 1830 to 1844, playing a role as writer, editor, speaker, and organizer. He is best known for his co-authorship of the authoritative compendium American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses, published in 1839. Harriet Beecher Stowe partly based Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Weld's text; the latter is regarded as second only to the former in its influence on the antislavery movement. Weld remained dedicated to the abolitionist movement until slavery was ended by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James W. C. Pennington</span> American abolitionist and writer (c. 1807–1870)

James William Charles Pennington was an American historican, abolitionist, orator, minister, writer, and social organizer active globally. Pennington is the first known Black student to attend Yale University. He was ordained as a minister in the Congregational Church, later also serving in Presbyterian churches for congregations in Hartford, Connecticut; and New York. After the Civil War, he served congregations in Natchez, Mississippi; Portland, Maine; and Jacksonville, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elijah Parish Lovejoy</span> American minister, journalist, and abolitionist (1802–1837)

Elijah Parish Lovejoy was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor, and abolitionist. Following his murder by a mob, he became a martyr to the abolitionist cause opposing slavery in the United States. He was also hailed as a defender of free speech and freedom of the press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Angell James</span> English Nonconformist clergyman and writer

John Angell James, was an English Nonconformist clergyman and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Richard</span>

Henry Richard was a Congregational minister and Welsh Member of Parliament between 1868–1888. Richard was an advocate of peace and international arbitration, as secretary of the Peace Society for forty years (1848–1884). His other interests included anti-slavery work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Ross (astrophysicist)</span> Canadian astrophysicist

Hugh Norman Ross is a Canadian astrophysicist, Christian apologist, and old-Earth creationist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Ringgold Ward</span> American journalist, abolitionist, minister (1817–c. 1866)

Samuel Ringgold Ward was an African American who escaped enslavement to become an abolitionist, newspaper editor, labor leader, and Congregational church minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moses Roper</span> African-American survivor of slavery, abolitionist and writer

Moses Roper was an African American abolitionist, author and orator. He wrote an influential narrative of his enslavement in the United States in his Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery and gave thousands of lectures in Great Britain and Ireland to inform the European public about the brutality of American slavery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All Nations Christian College</span> Building in Ware, England

All Nations Christian College is an English missions college, located on the Easneye estate near Ware, Hertfordshire, and validated by the Open University.

Leonard Black was born a slave in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and was separated from his family by the age of six. He escaped after 20 years of slavery. In 1847 he wrote The Life and Sufferings of Leonard Black: A Fugitive from Slavery. With encouragement and support, he became a Baptist minister, preaching in Boston, Providence, and Nantucket before becoming minister of First Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Sperry Chafer</span>

Lewis Sperry Chafer was an American theologian. He co-founded Dallas Theological Seminary with his older brother Rollin Thomas Chafer (1868-1940), served as its first president, and was an influential proponent of Christian Dispensationalism in the early 20th century. John Hannah described Chafer as a visionary Bible teacher, a minister of the gospel, a man of prayer with strong piety. One of his students, Charles Caldwell Ryrie, who went on to become a world renowned theologian and scholar, stated that Chafer was an evangelist who was also "an eminent theologian."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josiah Conder (editor and author)</span> British writer

Josiah Conder, was an abolitionist, author and hymn-writer. A correspondent of Robert Southey and well-connected to Romantic authors of his day, he was editor of the British literary magazine The Eclectic Review, the Nonconformist and abolitionist newspaper The Patriot, the author of romantic verses, poetry, and many popular hymns that survive to this day. His most ambitious non-fiction work was the thirty-volume worldwide geographical tome The Modern Traveller; and his best-selling compilation book The Congregational Hymn Book. Conder was a prominent London Congregationalist, an abolitionist, and took an active part in seeking to repeal British anti-Jewish laws.

Margaret Feinberg is an author and public speaker based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She creates books, Bible studies, and video curriculum aimed at people of faith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Burnet (abolitionist)</span>

John Burnet (1789–1862) was a pastor in Cork in Ireland before taking up the same position at the Mansion House Chapel in Camberwell. He was a well-known "platform speaker" speaking human rights issues, particularly at Exeter Hall. He was a leading member of both Congregational Union of England and the Bible Society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gene Scott</span> American pastor and teacher

William Eugene Scott was an American minister and teacher who served for almost 50 years as a pastor and broadcaster in Los Angeles, California. He pastored the Faith Center and Wescott Christian Center and held weekly Sunday services at the Los Angeles University Cathedral. Scott was known for his flamboyant persona when he presented late-night evangelistic television broadcasts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce Mitchell Cook</span>

Joyce Mitchell Cook was an American philosopher. She was the first African American woman to receive a PhD in philosophy in the United States. After earning that degree from Yale University, she was the first female teaching assistant allowed at the university. She went on to teach at Wellesley College, Connecticut College, Howard University. She served for several years as an analyst for African affairs at the State Department in Washington, D.C.

Renita J. Weems is an ordained minister, a Hebrew Bible scholar, and an author. in 1989 she received a Ph.D. in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies from Princeton Theological Seminary making her the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the field. Her work in womanist biblical interpretation is frequently cited in feminist theology and womanist theology. She is credited with developing theology and ethics as a field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Nelson (abolitionist)</span> Minister, educator, physician (1793–1844)

David Nelson was an American Presbyterian minister, physician, and antislavery activist who founded Marion College and served as its first president. Marion College, a Protestant manual labor college, was the first institution of higher learning chartered in the state of Missouri. Born in Tennessee, Dr. Nelson had once been a slaveholder but became an "incandescent" abolitionist after hearing a speech by Theodore D. Weld. Unpopular with proslavery groups in northeastern Missouri, Nelson stepped down as president of Marion College in 1835. In 1836, Nelson fled Missouri for Quincy, Illinois, after slaveowner Dr. John Bosely was stabbed at one of his sermons. Nelson then remained in Quincy, where he founded the Mission Institute to educate young missionaries. Openly abolitionist, two Mission Institute sites became well known stations on the Underground Railroad, helping African Americans escape to Canada to be free from slavery.

James Bradley was an African slave in the United States who purchased his freedom and became an anti-slavery activist in Ohio.

References

  1. 1 2 Rex, Kyle (11 December 2012). "Baker, Thomas Nelson, Sr. (1860-1940)" . Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Anderson, Robert (January 14, 2013). "Not pity but respect: Thomas Nelson Baker" . Retrieved March 25, 2018.
  3. Record of Christian Work, Volume 23. Record of Christian Work Company. 1904. p. 331.
  4. 1 2 Yancy, George (2016). African-American Philosophers: 17 Conversations. Routledge. p. 6.
  5. New York Times (New York, NY · Mon, Jun 28, 1937,
  6. The North Adams Transcript (North Adams, Massachusetts) · Jun 28, 1937
  7. Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 36, Number 2 (2011)
  8. "Andrea Baker - Mezzo Soprano". andreabaker.org. Retrieved 2021-10-29.